Christie’s and Phillips Have Auctions With Differing Results

Toward the end of a week that saw $2 billion worth of art change hands, the question Thursday night was whether buyers in New York would have the energy — and money — to spend still more as Christie’s and Phillips held auctions that overlapped a bit in time.

The answer at Christie’s was yes, as the house took in $202.6 million at its sale of Impressionist and modern art, led by an archetypical 1929 Piet Mondrian abstract, “Composition No. III, With Red, Blue, Yellow and Black,” that fetched $45 million, or $50.6 million with fees, the highest price ever paid for a work by the artist at auction.

At Phillips’s sale of contemporary art, the answer was less clear. Though the room was packed with dealers, advisers and buyers like Leonardo DiCaprio, some of whom had traveled over from the Christie’s sale a few blocks south, the buzz in the crowd did not buoy the bidding.

The star of the evening there was an oil on canvas by Francis Bacon, the British postwar painter whose “Seated Woman,” from 1961, is one of his typically fleshy and contorted portraits, purported to be the former proprietor of a London club that he frequented. But it went for $25 million, without fees, matching the low estimate but well below the high estimate of $35 million.

The Bacon had been a big get for Phillips, which is trying to transform itself into a more credible rival to Sotheby’s and Christie’s. But the grade of the hill it is trying to climb was apparent again in the fact that Phillips’s sale total of $97.2 million, including commissions and fees, was just a fraction of the $658.5 million that Christie’s took in Wednesday during its own evening sale of contemporary art.

Though Christie’s is not as strong as Sotheby’s in the sector of Impressionist and modern art, its sale total Thursday was twice the low estimate for the auction, in large part because of the performance of the Mondrian, a 19-inch square canvas displaying the Dutch modernist’s trademark grid with rectangles of yellow, blue and (commercially) red.

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Francis Bacon's “Seated Woman,” from 1961, went for $25 million at Phillips, without fees, matching the low estimate but well below the high estimate of $35 million.CreditFrancis Bacon/Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York, via Phillips

Owned by a European collector and off the auction market for 18 years, it had a low estimate of $15 million. But then a 10-minute duel ensued among at least six bidders, including a client on the telephone speaking to Xin Li, deputy chairman of Christie’s Asia, before it was finally sold to the New York art adviser Amy Cappellazzo, seated in the room.

“That was sanity, not vanity,” said the London private dealer Ivor Braka, who said the price was based on the quality of the painting, not financial speculation. “If I had to own one 20th-century painting, it would be a Mondrian like that.”

Mr. Braka was one of about 30 people who had left Christie’s by 6:30, a half-hour before the Phillips sale started. The mini-exodus seemed to buttress the notion that more collectors are buying across sectors. Christie’s had suggested as much last month in explaining why it had rescheduled its Impressionist and modern sale, pushing it back a week and placing it alongside its contemporary art auction, something it had not done in recent years.

Others said that Christie’s rescheduled to avoid having its auction clash with the Venice Biennale, where Christie’s owner, the French billionaire François Pinault, presided over several events including a sumptuous party for fellow collectors.

There was a telling contrast in demand for 20th-century works with “crossover” appeal to contemporary art buyers, and for pieces appealing to more traditional tastes. Amedeo Modigliani’s 1916 portrait of the ill-fated writer Beatrice Hastings (one of his many lovers) sold for $16.1 million, including fees, against a low estimate of $7 million, while a circa 1924 painting of a bride by Chaim Soutine sold for $15.6 million with fees, five times the $3 million low estimate.

All but three of the 40 lots sold, and the total was an improvement on the $165.6 million Christie’s achieved in November, though still well short of the $368.3 million that Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern sale had taken in last week.

(The total prices for a sale cited by the auction houses include the buyer’s premiums. Estimates do not reflect commissions.)

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Piet Mondrian’s 1929 “Composition No. III, With Red, Blue, Yellow and Black” sold for $50.6 million with fees at Christie’s, which took in $202.6 million at its sale of Impressionist and modern art on Thursday night.Creditvia Christie's Images LTD. 2015

At Phillips, its chief executive, Edward Dolman, said after its sale that he was happy to have seen the large crowd of 400, even after a busy week of auctions. “It was a very good atmosphere,” he said

But the sale did not get near the high estimate of $138.3 million. Though the lots featured a clutch of familiar names — Stella, Ruscha, and Wool — many of the 70 works stalled at the low estimate and 14 did not sell. For example, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Krong Thip (Torso),” estimated to realize as much as $6 million, stalled and was bought in.

“This week was fantastic,” said Kenny Schachter, a London dealer. “But tonight is a disappointment, and that is not unexpected.”

Still, the results were better than the $52 million that Phillips had taken at its evening sale in November. One highlight was Mark Tansey’s “Hedge,” an oil on canvas, that was estimated at $3.5 million to $4.5 million and rose to sell for a hammer of $4.9 million.

As is true at most large auctions these days, both sales relied on complicated financial guarantees to attract high-value artworks from wealthy consignors. The seller gets the guaranteed price no matter what happens during the sale, but has to share some portion of any amount above that with the guarantor.

While Christie’s and Sotheby’s have returned to the business of guaranteeing prices with their own money, Phillips has been more conservative and typically lays off the risk to outside financiers. Of the 70 lots Thursday night only seven were backed by house guarantees.

Mr. Dolman said Phillips needs to measure its progress against itself, not others. “While the sale figure may seem modest,” he said, when compared with the totals achieved at rival houses, “it certainly rates as one of our best.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A26 of the New York edition with the headline: Christie’s and Phillips Have Auctions With Differing Results . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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